Mary Karr Speaks

More on Mary Karr and her new book, The Art of Memoir.  This is her NPR interview of September 15, 2015 (with thanks to Kaye for the link).  It's a revealing look at Karr's take on the memoir genre, and is particularly revealing, I think, when she discusses what it is like to write so intimately about the people she loves.  

I am also linking to two earlier posts I wrote concerning Karr.  The first is my November 26, 2009 review of her memoir Lit, and the second is a more general reflection I posted in October 2009:

Lit: A Memoir

Mary Karr, Hometown Hero


David Foster Wallace fans will probably be most interested in the part of this interview in which Karr discusses, in great detail, her relationship with him.  I suspect (based on some of the comments posted over at NPR) that some will be offended by her characterization of Wallace because she is brutally honest in her comments and shoots down a David Foster Wallace legend or two in the process.  What does clearly come across is Karr's anger at Wallace for having chosen suicide as a way out of his troubled life...an anger that, from the tone of her comments, she is not even close to being over.